In the Middle Ages, cats were not very popular because of their association with witchcraft and black magic. Superstitions about cats, some
of them current today, date back to this period. Fisherman’s wives believed keeping a black cat in your home meant your husband would always return from the sea. In the 9th century, King Henry I of Saxony decreed that the fine for killing a cat should be sixty bushels of corn.
There are still people who believe that the cat is a reincarnation of the devil and regard it as bad luck.

Around 450 BC, anyone who killed a cat in Egypt was punished by death. When a cat died, the entire family would shave off their eyebrows as a sign of mourning. “The male cat is Ra himself, and he was called Mau because of the speech of the god Sa, who said concerning him: ` He is like
unto that which he hath made, therefore did the name of Ra become Mau.’” - papyrus from the XV111 Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, c.1500 BC Facts & Legends.